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Frequently Asked Questions

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The slackclient PyPI project is in maintenance mode now and slack-sdk project is the successor. The v3 SDK provides more functionalities such as Socket Mode, OAuth flow module, SCIM API, Audit Logs API, better asyncio support, retry handlers, and many more.

I cannot install slackclient​

We recommend using virtualenv (venv) to set up your Python runtime.

# Create a dedicated virtual env for running your Python scripts
python -m venv env

# Run env\Scripts\activate on Windows OS
source env/bin/activate

# Install slackclient PyPI package
pip install "slackclient>=2.0"

# Set your token as an env variable (`set` command for Windows OS)
export SLACK_API_TOKEN=xoxb-***

Then, verify the following code works on the Python REPL (you can start it by just python).

import os
import logging
from slack import WebClient
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
client = WebClient(token=os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"])
res = client.api_test()

If you encounter an error saying AttributeError: module 'slack' has no attribute 'WebClient', run pip list. If you find both slackclient and slack in the output, try removing slack by pip uninstall slack and reinstalling slackclient.

Should I go with run_async?​

For most cases, we recommend going with run_async=False mode. So, the default is False.

If your application turns run_async on, the app should follow right and efficient ways to use asyncio's non-blocking event loops and aiohttp. Also, consider using async frameworks and their appropriate runtime. Running event loops along with Flask or similar may not be a good fit.

If you have to simultaneously run WebClient with run_async=True outside an event loop for some reason, sharing a single WebClient instance doesn't work for you. Create an instance every time you run the code. The run_async=False mode doesn't have such issues.

I found a bug!​

That's great! Thank you. Let us know on the Issue Tracker. If you're feeling particularly ambitious, why not submit a pull request with a bug fix?

There's a feature missing!​

There's always something more that could be added! You can let us know in the Issue Tracker to start a discussion around the proposed feature, that's a good start. If you're feeling particularly ambitious, why not write the feature yourself, and submit a pull request! We love feedback and we love help and we don't bite. Much.

How do I contribute?​

What an excellent question. First of all, please have a look at our general contributing guidelines.

All done? Great! While we're super excited to incorporate your new feature, there are a couple of things we want to make sure you've given thought to.

  • Please write unit tests for your new code. But don't just aim to increase the test coverage, rather, we expect you to have written thoughtful tests that ensure your new feature will continue to work as expected, and to help future contributors to ensure they don't break it!
  • Please document your new feature. Think about concrete use cases for your feature, and add a section to the appropriate document, including a complete sample program that demonstrates your feature. Don't forget to update the changelog in changelog.rst!

Including these two items with your pull request will totally make our day---and, more importantly, your future users' days!